"CODY" a Documentary About Redlands Senior Cody Unser

May 2, 2009 -

You are invited to join your fellow University of Redlands alumni in an exclusive New York premier and benefit reception for the inspiring documentary, CODY; based on the life of University of Redlands graduating senior Cody Unser.

Narrated by Glenn Close, the film takes viewers on an intimate journey with graduating senior Cody Unser, who was paralyzed from the chest down after being struck with Transverse Myelitis at age 12. Much of the documentary was filmed on campus and features her unique ground-breaking degree in Biopolitics.

Cody Unser, the daughter of legendary race car driver Al Unser Jr., will graduate from the University of Redlands in a few short weeks after crafting a degree in biopolitics, the first of its kind in the nation, through the school’s innovative Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, where students work with faculty members to design their own degrees.

When Cody was 12, her breath went short and her legs numb during a school basketball game. It hit fast, and left Unser, of Albuquerque, paralyzed from the chest down. However, she refused to let that diagnosis define her and at 13 founded the Cody Unser First Step Foundation to ensure that money would be raised to find a cure. For the last five years, Cody has lobbied state legislatures and Congress to push for stem-cell research, which offers the key to her own recovery.

During the film, Cody shares her determination to walk again. The documentary, filmed in part at the University of Redlands, takes the viewers on an intimate journey with Cody detailing her daily emotional and physical struggles. The documentary maps the intersection of science and politics, and tracks her unique educational journey.

The documentary is produced by the Emmy-award winning Christopher Productions and The Cody Unser First Step Foundation.

Cody Unser said, “I hope my story will shed some light on what it is really like to live with paralysis. I also hope that the film will lead to more research dollars so that paralysis—not just for me, but for all people, will become a treatable and reversible diagnosis.”